


Lady's Moon, Lit by Three Stars

by shopfront



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Multi, Oblivious Character, Post-Hogwarts, Rituals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-15 23:06:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28696668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/pseuds/shopfront
Summary: Unspeakable Granger discovers something unexpected when she investigates the history of Lady Magic.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Luna Lovegood/Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood/Ginny Weasley
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21
Collections: Holly Poly 2020





	Lady's Moon, Lit by Three Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ChokolatteJedi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/gifts).



Hermione landed with one foot on the path and one in a patch of mud that she was fairly sure hadn’t been there last time she’d apparated to Ginny and Luna’s cottage. If she didn’t have a deadline for submitting her next personal research proposal, she would’ve at least waited for the rain to stop. Luna was forever changing the arrangement of her and Ginny’s gardens, making arriving by any method other than Floo something of a chore.

Helpfully, George had blown up their fireplace on his last visit and nobody had been able to figure out how to undo the damage since.

Sighing, Hermione tried and failed to shake the mud off, then had to resort to a scourgify. She was still wincing about the damage cleaning spells might have done to the leather when she knocked on the door. She knew they were likely to be home at least. It was two days since Ginny’s last international Quidditch game and she always made a point of staying home for a bit after travelling for work.

“Is Luna not around? I expected her to be making the most of her girlfriend being in the country for once,” Hermione said once she’d hung up her coat and followed Ginny through to the kitchen.

Ginny just shrugged. “She’s spending the night at Hogwarts with Hagrid. She wanted to see the unicorn herd again, apparently they’re calmer once the students have left for the summer.”

“Oh, well I just thought I’d pop in. I heard the game went well and thought I’d see how you are. That and I was also doing a bit of extra reading,” Hermione started to say, barely pausing when Ginny snorted. She at least kept her face turned away as she fiddled with the teabags and sugar, so Hermione continued as if she hadn’t heard. “I found an interesting reference to a goddess of magic. Do you know anything about that? I’ve never seen modern religious references before that don’t parallel the usual Muggle beliefs and I can’t seem to find a book about it anywhere either.”

“What on earth were you reading to come across something like that?” Ginny asked with a laugh as she poured water over the teabags.

Hermione’s heart sunk - it _had_ been a rare manuscript from the Mysteries collection. “Bit of an obscure reference then, is it?” she asked anyway, trying to sound casual. She’d have had no trouble pulling it off if she was at work but somehow half of her Unspeakable training seemed to fly out the window once she was around friends she’d had since before the war. If she’d been wrong about what she’d read, she’d have to scrap the whole-

“Just a bit,” Ginny interrupted Hermione’s train of thought with an incredulous shake of her head as she turned around to look at her. She rested a hip against the kitchen counter while she waited for the tea to steep and scrutinised Hermione’s face. “It’s the sort of thing you’d have more luck talking to people about it than reading. Nobody really writes it down, we don’t bother with anything like the Holy Biblio-”

“Bible,” Hermione corrected automatically.

“- or anything like that,” Ginny finished, twisting around awkwardly to finish fussing with the tea without entirely taking her eyes of Hermione. Grateful for even a partial reprieve from scrutiny, Hermione rummaged in her bag for some parchment and a self-inking quill. Using primary sources would be no help without copious documentation, after all.

“I’d love to hear more. Anything you can tell me, really. It’s just so strange to think there’s religious beliefs that I’ve never even heard of in the Wizarding World!” she said once she had everything set up and had made a few preliminary notes.

“I mean, I _can_ tell you, of course I can. You really should speak with Luna though. She’ll be able to explain much more than me,” Ginny said as she set a mug in front of Hermione.

Hermione blinked. “Really? Only, um, I was rather hoping to talk to someone this weekend.”

She winced as Ginny raised an eyebrow at her.

“It’s just so interesting,” she exclaimed quickly before Ginny could ask why she was in such a rush. “Could I perhaps question you both separately? Luna always has such niche interests and I’d like to understand a more mainstream explanation as well. Then I could compare different perspectives later!”

With a non-committal hum, Ginny sat down opposite Hermione. Narrowing her eyes, she pointed out that, “you’re assuming Luna’s beliefs are unusual, Hermione.” She didn’t look angry, there was something fond about her eyes as she nudged Hermione’s mug closer to her in an encouraging fashion. Their fingers brushed when Hermione gave in and wrapped her hands around it, even though she was far too busy thinking to drink it - not that Ginny seemed very inclined to pull away from the contact.

“Aren’t they? I’ve never heard of anything like this before now.”

“Uncommon, perhaps. I think a few things about Luna might make more sense to you after you speak with her,” was all Ginny would say in reply, the corners of her lips quirking up.

She just sipped at her own tea when Hermione tried to press her for more information and refused to elaborate about her own beliefs when asked. Her eyes were bright as she evaded Hermione’s questions and she didn’t look away again even for a moment. By the time Hermione gave in and took her leave, promising to write to Luna, she was feeling rather irritated by the whole thing. She had at least one lead though. Maybe Luna would be more forthcoming.

*

To her continued frustration, Luna didn’t reply to her owl. Not that Hermione was very surprised by it. Sometimes Luna’s letters would turn up in the hands of a Niffler or some other unexpected creature, but often as not Luna would simply wait until she saw someone again to reply to a note.

Luckily, Luna didn’t keep her waiting long. The next week found Hermione about to tap her wand on her front door to lock down her wards when she heard a sunny ‘good morning’ called out by a familiar voice. Surprised, she looked over her shoulder and was pleased to spot a familiar head of blonde hair turning the nearest corner.

“Hello,” Luna said, greeting her again once she'd reached Hermione’s doorstep. “Are you off to work? It must be nice working in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Have you found a migratory Crumple-Horned Snorkack to photograph yet?”

Hermione found herself smiling broadly. “We haven’t, but I can certainly remind the delegate to the Swedish Ministry that we requested one from them if you'd like,” she said, already amused at the thought of ruining the odious man’s day.

It wasn’t often that she truly liked her Unspeakable cover of taking on lost causes in the Department. For one, the causes designated to her as lost were usually an even split between truly lost and merely unpopular. She’d garnered more than one scolding already for being too effective in her second job and drawing unwanted attention to herself.

“That’s nice of you to offer. I really do think it would be best for everybody if the Swedish Ministry added them to the international records sooner rather than later. There’s quite a few misconceptions about them in Britain. I shouldn’t keep you then, I wouldn’t want to make you late for petitioning on behalf of the Snorkacks,” Luna said, smiling cheerily as she turned on her heel.

It took Hermione a moment to register that Luna was already looking in her pocket for her wand to apparate away, and she waved her hands wildly and lunged after Luna only just barely in time to stop her.

“It’s alright, I don’t mind,” Hermione said hurriedly as she reached behind herself to push her front door open again. “Please, come on in. I was working quite late last night. Nobody’s expecting me yet,” she continued truthfully as she ushered Luna inside.

Mostly because she was actually meant to work in Mysteries on Mondays, but nobody tracked Unspeakables the same way they did other Ministry workers. Not even the Department of Mysteries itself.

After spending an unreasonable amount of time fussing with a plate of biscuits and digging out a few blank scrolls to write on, Hermione decided to just get to the point and ask Luna the same questions she’d asked Ginny. Then she found she couldn’t help herself and asked a few more as well before she’d even received answers to the first.

“Yes, I can see why you find this all so surprising. Not everybody knows the right way to speak with Lady Magic. You have to believe in her, you see,” Luna was explaining a little while later.

Her voice sounding almost eerily distant and her eyes were fixed on the horizon through Hermione’s living room window. Their silvery colour seemed to be shifting the longer she stared, deepening into shades of blue and dark grey that mirrored the sky she was watching. Hermione was finding it rather hard to keep her own eyes on her scroll, finding herself distracted by watching them whenever she glanced at Luna.

“That’s what allows her to touch you.”

“Just belief? Surely there’s something more to it than that?” Hermione asked with a frown, furiously scribbling again and trying to ignore the pain in her hand or the urge to continue looking up.

“You could always clear your mind with a moon ritual if you still have trouble believing in things. The Lady has always been fond of those and I’d very much enjoy showing it to you,” Luna replied dreamily, her gaze focusing slowly back on Hermione again. Her attention sharpened quickly and she looked pleased when she caught Hermione still sneaking glances at her.

“Moon ritual? Can you list the necessarily components for me, or is this part something I might find in a book? Is it a ritual of belief or one with verifiable results? Something specific to the goddess, or something broader?” Hermione asked. Her hand was definitely starting to cramp as she kept it hovering a little desperately above her scroll, waiting for more.

“I don’t think it’s ever been written down,” Luna said, reminding Hermione of her frustration while visiting with Ginny. There was an oddly similar look in Luna’s eye now; though she at least seemed quite eager to explain things to Hermione, in her own way. “It’s not the sort of thing that’s agreeable to all the things that live in parchment and the parchment likes to forget bits of it to keep them happy. However, there is a full moon next Tuesday. I’d only need to re-arrange the gardens a little to accommodate more than two people in the ritual.”

Still not entirely sure how much of this was just her chasing nonsense in circles, Hermione nonetheless agreed. She didn’t spend nearly enough time with Ginny and Luna anymore. Or any of her friends really, she was forever losing track of time down in the depths of Mysteries until Ron or Harry finally snapped and began bombarding her with interdepartmental memos from the Auror department.

Even if Luna’s ritual amounted to nothing, perhaps they’d still enjoy a nice evening together. A night under the stars might even help her think up a new idea for her proposal, if it turned out that she needed one.

*

A shiver ran down her spine as Luna drew the last rune on the grass with a frost spell. It shimmered there for a moment before they all dissolved at once, disappearing into the ground between one blink and the next.

Sucking in a sharp breath, Hermione moved to lean in as close as possible to the nearest place a rune had been laid in case she could spot any lingering marks on the grass for later examination in a pensieve. Ginny was the one who caught her arm, pulling her back to the centre of the picnic blanket she’d laid out for them all to sit on.

Beside them, Luna rose to her knees and raised her hands towards the moon - or at least, roughly the same bit of sky where the moon had been before clouds had obscured it. She’d insisted bad weather wouldn’t make a difference though, and Hermione watched now as she began chanting something under her breath. It was slow and rhythmic and quite unlike any language Hermione thought she’d heard before and listening to it made something tingle in her wand hand.

Luna reached across and pressed the heel of her hand to the bridge of Hermione’s nose as she said the last word, partially obscuring Hermione's eyes with her fingers. The touch was quick and would’ve made Hermione jump, only Ginny’s hands had already moved to her shoulders and were a steady, reassuring weight keeping her steady and anchored to the ground.

Another shiver ran down her spine as Luna’s hand lingered.

“That’s it,” Luna said cheerily when she let Hermione go and the shivering sensation abruptly lifted along with the loss of her touch. The warmth of Ginny’s palms only lingered for a moment longer, stroking soothingly down the sides of Hermione’s arms before drawing away as well. “Now you should be able to perform a form of magic that is normally difficult for you. Most people find new skills their first time.”

“Here, I brought my practice broom,” Ginny said after scrabbling around under the edge of the blanket for a moment. “I reckon that’s probably your weakest point if you want to test yourself.”

Hermione gaped. “That’s a professional broom! I can’t ride that, I’ll crash it,” she yelped when Ginny tried to shove the handle at her.

“Not with the Lady’s blessing you won’t,” Ginny replied with confidence as Luna nodded along with her.

“It’s alright if you’re nervous; I am sometimes after a ritual as well. Her blessings will last at least a few days if you need to gather your courage first,” Luna said as Hermione just spluttered in indignation.

“What’s the point of doing a ritual if all it helps me with is flying, anyway?” she asked, wishing for a moment that either of them had allowed her to bring out her notes. Not that it truly mattered when she was planning to review the memory anyway, but it couldn’t have hurt to have dual records.

“It helps you with whatever you most need help with and you really _are_ a terrible flyer,” Ginny said with a chuckle.

Feeling her cheeks heat, Hermione huffed. “That’s still not very useful if you can’t choose how to direct it. What if I what most needed was stronger offensive spells?”

Before she could work up too big of a head of steam though, the wind picked up and suddenly the moonlight was peaking through the clouds again. Hermione saw the quick gleam from a pair of eyes in the bushes, eyes that certainly hadn’t been there before; she’d cast a very strong lumos under all the plants when she’d arrived to make sure there was no wildlife about to disturb the ritual. It was very important to control as many variables as possible for her proposal.

Fumbling for her wand, she pointed it towards the bush with a shield charm on the tip of her tongue just in case but Luna quickly stayed both her hands. “It’s alright,” Luna said, rubbing her thumbs in slow circles on Hermione’s inner wrists. “She’s quite harmless.”

“She?” Hermione asked with a squeak.

“The animals who appear here during a full moon are almost always female when Luna manages to catch them and check,” Ginny said in a wry tone.

“Detailed records of sightings are very important with new species. Hermione knows all about that,” Luna agreed seriously.

“New?” Hermione asked, vaguely aware that her voice was starting to reach higher than usual pitches but somehow unable to stop herself even though she could see Ginny nodding out of the corner of her eye.

Which meant they must truly be new or at least very unusual, whatever it was they normally found. She knew how hard it was for Ginny to be ignorant about magical creatures after growing up with Charlie for an older brother.

“Oh, yes. I think it’s because we hold the proper rituals so often, at least one of us has come out here every full moon since we moved here. Why did you think I was always re-arranging the garden?” Luna asked, her thumbs still gently stroking. “The Nargles change their preferred nesting places based on the alignment of Jupiter, and sometimes faeries hold magical rites in that sandy spot by the back fence but only if I get the number of planted flower bulbs just right. That rosebush is the one most often favoured by the Lady though, so I try not to move it.”

“Faeries don’t perform magical rites,” Hermione corrected her briskly on autopilot.

Luna only cocked her head to the side, looking curious. “How do you know they don’t?”

Hermione’s mouth opened and closed silently. “I suppose I don’t for sure,” she admitted a moment later, and Luna’s answering smile was a sweet reward. Ginny leaned over and wrapped Hermione’s shoulders in a one-armed hug.

Luna’s smile widened when Hermione leant into the hug, and she continued, “magic’s full of hidden things though, isn’t it? Why does it change things if it’s hidden from Muggles or if it's hidden from us? That’s what the Lady really does. She shows us hidden things.”

“Creatures usually appear for Luna. I sometimes find new plants in the mornings now instead of a skill, though I suppose that’s still not surprising when I was rubbish at Herbology,” Ginny said, her voice low and intimate from right beside Hermione’s ear.

They waited as Hermione thought all of that over. Then Luna drew Hermione to her feet and away from the bush as Ginny folded the blanket, proclaiming the creature shy and not ready to meet anyone this moon. Hermione hardly noticed, insisting Ginny explain what skills she thought had been enhanced in her earliest full moon rituals as Luna led them both inside.

Some of the stories sounded like an adult form of accidental magic, and Hermione was still breathless with questions and excitement by the time dawn broke. As she smothered a yawn and tried to quiz Luna and Ginny about their observations just one last time, Hermione almost didn’t notice how close they’d all become crowded together around the cottage’s tiny kitchen table. Luna was still smiling and nodding along with her obligingly but there was a particular set to Ginny’s face that kept catching Hermione’s eye - whatever it was, it was certainly intense.

Before she could ask about that too, Luna surprised her by leaning in close. Catching Hermione by the chin, Luna held her still just long enough to place a determined kiss on her mouth. Luna’s lips were soft and Hermione noticed they tasted very faintly of turnips, of all things. Tired and not thinking particularly clearly, she lost herself in the sensation for one very long moment before awareness began to set in. When Luna pulled away again Hermione’s eyes darted straight to Ginny, only-

Ginny didn’t look upset in the slightest. If anything, she looked thrilled; almost as if she’d just made a difficult pass with the Quaffle. It was the same expression Hermione had seen on her face after a hundred winning matches and on many a Daily Prophet front page.

“You’re looking at Ginny very closely, would you like to kiss her too?” Luna asked. Ginny’s smile only widened when Hermione mouth moved soundlessly for a moment, still too pleasantly dazed by the kiss. “We rather hoped you might want to stay the night after the ritual.”

Hermione frowned a little, distracted by the question. “You only have one bedroom-”

“Yes,” Ginny said, interrupting her with a devilish wink. “That’s rather the point.”

Mouth finally dropping into a little ‘oh’ of comprehension, Hermione thought her cheeks must be blazing red. Luna took her by the hand before she could press her fingers to them in a last ditch attempt to cool them. Kissing the back of Hermione’s fingers, she looked up at both of them through the fall of her hair.

“I know it’s early and we’re all very tired but perhaps you’d still like to stay the morning instead?” Luna asked. Hermione might have shushed Ginny when she made an undignified sound of triumph at the new look on Hermione's face. She didn’t let that stop her from nodding her head though, or from letting Ginny take her by the other hand and lead her from the room.

If this was her first hidden thing revealed by ritual, Hermione wasn’t inclined to question it. She was just very glad that she’d decided to make time for an evening under the stars.


End file.
